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Valley hits milestone 50 degrees

A walk around town Friday would have surely led to the conclusion that western Colorado has taken a turn for the better weather-wise, but in actuality the area experienced something it hadn’t felt since November of last year.

Fifty whole degrees.

The Grand Valley hadn’t reached those lofty heights since Nov. 18, 2013, to be precise — a stretch of 87 days between that date and Friday in which the mercury never topped the 50-degree mark. A record cold December fell in between, with an average daily temperature that was the second-coldest on record.

That nearly 90-day stretch is the ninth-longest stint of sub-50 degree weather ever recorded for the region, according to the local office of the National Weather Service.

“We’re going to have a weak ridge of high pressure move over us this weekend, and that’s going to keep our temperatures above normal. That’s going to continue into next week,” said John Kyle, a data acquisition program manager at the local NWS office.

Kyle said folks can expect temperatures in the mid-50s through the weekend. Next week, though, is another story.

“We have a big change coming late next week,” Kyle said. “We have a pretty strong system that’s going to come in from the northwest — and it’s going to remind us that we’re still in February, and we’ll have highs in the ‘30s by late next week.”